Free Online Plagiarism Checkers for Teachers and Educators

9 minutes

55990 views

Plagiarism detection software gives teachers access to a world-wide database of information when it comes to finding plagiarists, and the similarity reports they generate help students understand the importance of citing references. Here is a list of the top 7 free online plagiarism checkers (and three paid ones) for teachers and educators to use with their students to help stamp out plagiarism.

1. PlagScan

PlagScan allows you to compare documents against its own database, freely accessible Web sources and non-public scientific content from cooperating publishers and researchers. You can also use PlagScan to cross-check documents against each other.

Pros

PlagScan offers:

a service tailored to teachers and post-secondary institutions

detailed guidelines and advice for avoiding plagiarism, right on the homepage

a comprehensive plagiarism detection service without the need to download and install additional software

A premium account at Paper Rater is $7.95 USD per month per user, if you pay annually.

7. PlagTracker

PlagTracker allows you to carry out unlimited plagiarism checks for free and produces a comprehensive list of links to web sites where it may have found duplicate content.

Pros

PlagTracker’s interface is intuitive and:

allows you to check an unlimited amount of documents for free, up to 5,000 words at a time

generates a report quickly

Cons

Though it passes muster as a first line of defense, PlagTracker:

marked unique text as plagiarized on numerous occasions

marked the same text as unique on one report and plagiarized on the next

Here’s what you get out of the paid services

checking documents against a larger database

the ability to exclude sources from your report

grammar check included

A premium subscription is $14.99 USD per month.

Free sites are great for a quick and dirty plagiarism check, but if you want to do some serious detection, you might choose to subscribe to a paid service. Here are 3 paid sites to consider:

8. Check For Plagiarism

Whether you are a teacher, educator, student or researcher, Check For Plagiarism has a plan for you.

Pros

Check For Plagiarism seems to be incredibly dynamic, accepting files in over 100 languages and file formats, in addition to:

multiple free user accounts for teachers and students at no extra cost

software that checks student work against journals, articles, and books

easy to read, interactive reports

Cons

On the surface, Check For Plagiarism seems like a great option, but:

trial accounts cannot be made without providing personal information

on-site pricing is ambiguous, making it hard to tell if the site is cost effective

Accounts begin at $20.00 USD for students, $85.00 for educators, and $95.00 for researchers.

9. Grammarly

Grammarly bills itself as the best plagiarism and grammar checker out there. Though it will give you an itemized list of problems it found for free, you have to create a paid account to see the report.

Pros

Grammarly claims to detect and correct more than 10 times the grammatical errors of your word processor, as well as:

compare your text to the content of billions of web pages

create citations for you in multiple styles

allow you to upload both copy and pasted text and files for testing

Cons

The one cause for concern is:

you cannot do a thorough test for free prior to purchasing a subscription

Grammarly plans begin at $37.95 but decrease with quarterly or annual plans.

10. TurnItIn

A popular paid service for teachers, students and educators, TurnItIn saves all uploaded files to a database which is used in the site’s document comparison algorithm.

Pros

In addition to providing teacher tools to support paperless classroom environments, TurnItIn:

lets students upload multiple files, multiple times

produces a comprehensive report with links to existing web sites from within the interface

connects teachers of students submitting plagiarized papers

Cons

The cons are few, but include:

an awkward interface with respect to other features offered (such as online assignment evaluation and peer editing)

Potential clients are asked to use the online form to contact TurnItIn to discuss pricing and plans.

11. Unplag

Created especially for educators and students, the Unplag plagiarism checker scans against the Internet in real-time and allows comparing documents and folders inside the user account. It highlights text matches in the checked file and on the original source and provides detailed reports which you can download in .pdf or share via your account.

Pros

Plagiarism checks are completed at a four-second per page speed

Citations and references in any academic writing style are highlighted and can be omitted

You can check several files at a time and change sensitivity of similarity searches

Cons

Similarity checks become available once the Unplag account is funded

You can compare up to five documents against each other

You can upload up to four files at once to your account

You can check different file formats including .odt, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, and .html without changes in document formatting and see originality and similarity percentage after each scan is completed. The prices for the Unplag subscription plans vary from $4,99 per year to $9,97 per month.

Conclusion

Plagiarism detection software for teachers and educators is a must in today’s classrooms, not only to identify plagiarism, but to help teach students avoidance tactics. Be sure to test software for accuracy and ease of use before selecting the one that’s right for your needs.

Read this article to find out how iSpring software can protect your e-courses from plagiarism.

Do you have a favorite plagiarism checker that’s not on this list? Tell us about it in the comments below!

If you liked the article, please let us know by clicking the Share button.

If you have any ideas what kind of e-Learning topics you'd like to see discussed, feel free to leave a comment; we're always happy to write new content for you.